William P. Byrne

William P. Byrne is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight's Jacksonville office, where he serves on the leadership team of the Transportation and Infrastructure Industry Sector Group. Mr. Byrne practices primarily in the area of transportation, with extensive experience in rail, road, intermodal (multimodal) and ocean transportation, including federal/state compliance issues; motor carrier, broker, truckload, less than truckload and intermodal (multimodal) agreements; equipment management, i.e., chassis, container, railcar and trailer leasing, acquisition, interchange (under the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Interchange Rules and Uniform Intermodal and Facilities Access Agreement (UIIA)), and maintenance and repair (M&R) agreements; and charter parties.

Mr. Byrne has similarly extensive experience in shared freight and passenger rail corridors and has represented buyers and sellers in mergers, acquisitions and restructuring transactions, including the sale and/or lease of rail lines for and on behalf of all classes of rail carriers. He has broad experience handling a wide variety of contract and corporate and commercial matters. Mr. Byrne also regularly assists clients involved with litigation and arbitration and uses his background to help them assess and solve business disputes. He has served as an arbitrator in a number of maritime arbitrations in New York. His work has been recognized by Chambers USA and other legal publications.

In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Byrne is a member of Holland & Knight's elected Directors Committee and is an active participant in industry organizations.

Mr. Byrne began his career in the transportation business in New York City in 1980 and has acted both as outside counsel as a maritime lawyer and on the business side as CEO of a New York-based commercial representative of a Brazilian ship-owning and chemical group engaged in trade to and from the U.S., Europe and the Far East.

Upon passing the Florida bar exam in 1999, Mr. Byrne was invited by the Florida Supreme Court to speak on behalf of the candidates at the ceremony for the induction of candidates for admission to The Florida Bar at the Florida Supreme Court.